Pilots admit 'concern' about drones

Sterling area is a no-drone zone

Professional pilots attending Tuesday's meeting about drone safety confessed they "have some concerns" about drones in the Sterling area.

Asked if the growing popularity of drones scares him, Darrel Mertens of Aero Applicators of Sterling said he isn't so much scared as concerned.

"I'm not scared," the pilot and business owner said, "but I am very concerned about the irresponsible drone operators out there."

Pointing to one of the gleaming yellow spray planes parked in his hangar, Mertens said, "That thing weighs three-thousand pounds but a drone battery or engine hitting it would be like a rock the size of your fist hitting it at 150 mph. If it hits an aileron or the vertical stabilizer, or if it hits the propeller, I've got a real problem."

Karl Hoffman, who flies medical helicopters for Banner Health, said his aircraft cruises at 160 mph and is even more vulnerable to collision with airborne intruders.

"There are two thin tubes that come up underneath the main rotor (of a helicopter)" Hoffman said. "They're made of aluminum. They control (the pitch of) the rotor. You hit one of those with something solid at 160 mph, and I lose my flight controls. (A drone) could come through the windshield, hit my tail rotor, all kinds of things could happen."

Pilots at the meeting emphasized that they usually cannot see something as small as a drone intruding in their airspace. Mertens said he participated in a training exercise involving drones intruding over four fields being sprayed, and in only one of the fields did a pilot actually see the drone. In the other three cases, he said, ground spotters had to warn the pilot of the drone's presence.

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He said the FAA's regulation prohibiting drone flights within five miles of an airport means the entire Sterling area is essentially a no-drone zone. He roughly defined the area as being bordered by Ramada Inn on the east, Pawnee Pass on the west, Logan County Road 38 on the north, and Atwood to the south.

Brian Richardson, the FAA's safety chief in Denver, said such places as Aero Applicators, Sterling Regional MedCenter, and any other business or agency that regularly has aircraft taking off and landing can be considered an airport or heliport.

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